Standard Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything of the Harry Potter empire. Nope, nada. No money is being made here, which is solely due to sleepless nights and a disgruntled muse who has a penchant for excessive caffein. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is entirely unlikely and is unintentional if it does happen.

Timeframe: Hogwarts immediately after the Battle, with some slight time alterations of events during the battle. AU afterwards.

Warning: The aftermath of a battle is never pretty. Some nasty language, and character bashing.

Chapter 6: Loose Ends

Ron looked at the parchment in his hand, and smiled widely. "I'm rich now!"

Turning to Hermione, he said "Now we can get married, and live at the Burrow. You can look after our kids and I can play Quidditch. Maybe I will even start my own professional team!"

Hermione look at Ron in shock. She also noticed his family having similar expressions on their faces. She said "Ron, I will assume for the moment that it is your grief talking. I have other plans. My prospects aren't going to be held down by the old guard anymore. I can go for a Mastery, or even go to a University. I want to study and work on Wizarding law to see if I can get some of the unfair laws repealed."

Ron looked shocked. "You want to go to school even more. Are you completely crazy? You can look after our kids, just like Mom did with us. You know I fancy you. That should be all you need."

Hermione started getting angry. "So you think I am only good to be a brood mare, do you? What do you think we fought the war for?"

Ron smiled at this, as he thought he had a good answer for her being obstinate. "The war was because Voldemort was trying to kill Harry. Now that that is over, we can get back to a normal life. A real life. Mom was happy doing it. Why shouldn't you?"

Molly started to cry as she heard what her youngest son thought of her role in his life. The rest of the group looked even more shocked except for the two goblins. They were smiling at each other, as they watched a human about to go over a cliff that he was making for himself.

Hermione swallowed, and glanced at Harry who was looking rather unhappy about his best male friend, and then said "Ron, I need to go to Australia and find my parents. Chief elf Niffle and I are going to meet to look at the properties that I have now. And yes, I want to get more education!"

Ron saw her glancing at Harry, and his perennial jealousy got the better of him. "So you're going to throw me over for a bunch of elves and a couple muggles? Or are you already been shagging Harry since I left you alone with him last year? Is that what you are telling me?"

Steelblade handed a small pouch of coins to Goldhand, settling their bet on who was going to blow up first.

Hermione shook her head in sadness and disgust. Turning to Niffle, she asked "Please let me know when it would be a good time for our meeting. This is obviously not a good time." With that, she left the stairway where they were meeting.

Ron looked at the disapproving expressions on the faces of those around him and, not really understanding what had just happened, exclaimed "What?"

Neville Longbottom was in his greenhouse, when an elf from one of his newly acquired estates interrupted him.

"Master, you is doing elfy work. Master should be doing wizardy work, and leave elfy work to elves! Elves do elfy work, not wizardy work!"

Neville smiled. "I am doing wizardy work. I am seeing what plants might grow well here, and what cross-breeding we can do to increase the potency of herbs we use in potions. I will certainly need the help of you and the other elves in getting things to grow, and to figure out how much fertilizer and water each kind of plant is going to need. Particularly any new kinds of plants we come up with."

"My friend Harry is setting up some help for people who were injured in the war, and housing for children who were orphaned. I would like to increase the amount of food we can raise at this and my other properties to feed them."

The elf looked pensive. "Master is right. It is very bad for younglings to go hungry. Master, what other properties you are having?"

Neville smiled again. "Please just call me Neville, not Master. I have what used to be the Crabbe and Nott estates, as well as this, my home property. By the way, what is your name, and what other elves are available for this kind of project?"

The elf thought for a moment, and then responded "I is sometimes called Shovelly, because I work with shovels, but my name is Fluffy. All told and including your other places as far as I is knowing, we have about 40 elf gardeners, and twenty who do construction and repair. I is thinking you are going to need greenhouses for all the plantings. Measuring in a space one elf-height by one elf-height, there should be enough for greenhouses of about a half a million spaces. Elves would need to find water and heating for them. I be looking for the water, but we can dig deep holes to get heat from the ground or else borrow some Welsh Green dragons to breathe onto piles of rocks every week."

Smiling he added, "Elves will be very happy to have lots of work and to help Master and his friends come up with new plants and feed younglings."

Hermione Granger sat in a room with Niffle and eight senior elves who were the chief elves at the estates that she now controlled, by Right of Conquest. She was trying to figure out how she would overcome the lack of trust the elves had for her, because of her misdirected attempts to free the elves at Hogwarts.

She knew that it would be an uphill battle. However, she was adamant that 'her' elves would not be wearing the rags they had worn previously. She also knew Harry's snide comment that 'Elves of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your tea-towels' was not much of a rallying cry for a revolution.

From her father, who had been in the military but said he wasn't allowed to talk about it, she had learned that anyone who demanded "You can trust me" probably couldn't be trusted. So don't even think of saying it to a group who already mistrusted you.

Hermione began "Thank you all for attending this meeting. I have recently learned that my understanding of elves was quite wrong, and I need to learn more about you all and those who work with you under your supervision."

"One thing I wish to change, and I am insistent on this, is a matter of clothing. For each of the properties I now have, I would like the elves to be issued good quality clothing. I would like your input on styles and materials, and what variations you would like for different tasks, as I assume elves working in food preparation will need different clothes than those working with livestock."

Some of the elves looked shocked. They had heard of her attempts to free the Hogwarts elves and wanted none of it. One grumbled "She's trying to give us clothes! Again!"

Hermione shook her head. "The clothes I propose are part of the property, and not personal possessions, although they would be customized to your own needs. I am suggesting that, similar to those at Hogwarts, the clothes are uniforms to show the pride in your work at the properties where you live. If you wish, the clothes at each property could have a logo or crest showing the property affiliation. I am sorry that my previous issues with elven clothing were misguided, and I apologize."

This shocked the elves even more. Given that the perperties had been owned by Death Eaters, certainly no masters had every apologised to any of them before.

She continued. "Similar to what I now know is the practice at Hogwarts, any profits from the estates I now hold will be shared to provide funds for anything you and your staffs might need, as well as to set up a contingency fund for medical care or retirement benefits for any elves who wish to retire"

One elf spoke up. "Mistress, we is not needing a retirement fund. To an elf, to live is to work. If physical work becomes a problem, then we teach our young our ways. When an elf is done, we say goodbye to those around us, and our elfness goes away – you would say that we die."

Herminone asked, "Would what you call your 'elfness' be the same as what we humans would call our soul? This is the first I have heard of this. I was taught that when we die, our souls go to another realm, either good or bad depending on how we have lived. Other humans have different beliefs, and some say our souls come back in another body to live again. As far as I know for certain, nobody really knows, although many people claim they have the one and only answer. May I ask your name, please?"

The elf smiled. "I is Pangloss, Mistress. I is happy to talk to you more about elfs, and our ways and thinkings."

The elves and Hermione Granger talked for hours, learning more about each other and themselves as well.

Harry Potter sat across the table, calmly looking at the disapproving face of Narcissa Malfoy. Sitting with him was Goldhand, the Senior Accounts Manager for Gringotts, as the discussion had to do with finances affecting several different accounts. Niffle, the Chief of all British Elves, was also with them.

She almost screamed at Harry. "How dare you demand I show up to meet with you and these animals? Don't you know who I am?"

Harry smiled. "Yes, I know who you are, which is not who you think you are, and is an entirely different matter."

This response what not at all what she expected. Or for that matter, what she had been taught to expect her entire life. She expected total subservience from those 'lesser' than herself, and she certainly wasn't getting it from either this young wizard or the goblin or elf beside him.

With Narcissa scowling at him, Harry spoke. "As of the battle at Hogwarts, I am now the Head of the Black Family, as well as the Head of House Malfoy. The first by inheritance from my godfather Sirius Black, and the second by right of conquest. As a result of being both, you are now under my guardianship and protection. I should also point out that, according to the Inheritance Protection office here at Gringotts, you constitute no current threat to me, which is why you are still alive."

Narcissa shook her head in disbelief. "You can't be the Head of the Black Family! Sirius was disinherited years ago by his mother. My son Draco should have been the head of the family!"

Harry smiled, and it was a somewhat nasty smile. "Mrs. Malfoy, as with many things you are very much mistaken. Your aunt Wallpurga was quite delusional in claiming that she had the power to disinherit anybody. The House of Black is strictly patriarchal, and only the Head of the family has that authority. She believed that she could do whatever she wanted regarding and affecting the family members, but she was wrong. Sirius was the heir to the family and with the death of his father, became the Head. Your eldest sister Andromeda is also still a member of the family in good standing. Andromeda is currently looking after her grandson, who is incidentally my godson and designated Heir. She is also mourning the deaths of her daughter and son-in-law, who were murdered by your former associates. Since your aunt tried twice to disinherit her husband, who was the actual Head of the family, the Inheritance office disregarded absolutely all of her claims."

"However, your sister Bellatrix was cast out automatically when she attacked and murdered Sirius, as the family magic prohibits any member harming the Head of the Family, or its designated Heir."

"In a way, you were lucky to not have been cast out yourself, when your husband and son attacked me on several occasions. However, given your low magical power rating, the family magic appears to have decided you were not to blame."

This really got her back up! "How dare you say my magical power rating is low?" Drawing her wand, she shouted "Stupify!" Harry merely held up his hand and wordlessly cast a shield which completely blocked her spell. She slumped into her chair in surprise.

Harry replied "As head of the Black family, I have looked at the actual records of your background. The actual ones, not the ones your husband had planted in the files or coerced others to write up."

"At Hogwarts, you were at best in the middle of your class rankings, and achieved only three OWLs. Those were in Potions, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Note that none of these classes rely on the magical power of the witch or wizard. In the classes where your own magic is needed, like Transfiguration, Defense and Charms, you were in the bottom two or three in the class."

"You got married to Lucius Malfoy out of your sixth year, and never graduated from Hogwarts. Lucius was already a marked Death Eater, and to him your primary assets were that you were very pretty, very rich and from a politically powerful Pureblood family, with this last being the most important. When you went to take your apparition test, after the part of the test where you need to apparate the length of the Ministry corridor, you needed to rest for a full hour afterwards, indicating that your magical core was exhausted. Lucius bribed the examiner to list you as having passed the test with full marks."

"Whenever you travelled to social functions, you either took a portkey, the floo, or apparated accompanied by Lucius with your arm on his. From these facts, it would appear that you were not capable of a long distance apparation by yourself."

Nodding to Goldhand, Harry continued. "Further, from what little I was able to extract from the account manager for your dowry, Lucius had somehow persuaded you to let him drain your account for the benefit of his Master. The proud Malfoys were bankrupting you on behalf of that half-blooded bastard who branded his followers like the livestock they were to him"

Narcissa yelled in anger. "The Dark Mark was a mark of loyalty! They were loyal to the dark Lord, and for that, you murdered my husband and my son!"

Harry shook his head. "You are a fool. Your husband and son were dead from the day they took the Dark Mark! That was a mark of slavery, nothing else! The Dark Mark was a leach charm that was draining the magic and life from his followers. He claimed to have achieved immortality, so why should he care for those who provided him with their wealth and magic, but were all going to die before he ever would. When he died at my hand in the battle at Hogwarts, he sucked all of the magic and life from his slaves in a vain attempt to save his own skin. He didn't give a rat's ass for any of them!"

"As I mentioned, the bank account tied to your dowry was drained to supply Voldemort's needs. However, by the terms of the dowry trust set up by your family, who wisely didn't really trust the Malfoys as far as I could throw Hogwarts Castle into a headwind, they were unable to touch the investments that funded the bank account, and which are now replenishing your vault nicely. They also could not touch or occupy your dower house, which is fortunate for you."

"You see, I will need you to vacate the Malfoy mansion within the month, so it can be purged of the dark objects and foul magic that infect the place. You can take any personal possessions and furniture your may need, but they will have to be checked for dark magic before moving them to your new dwelling."

Shocked at this news, Narcissa asked, "How am I going to manage? I need servants. I was raised a pureblood girl, and I can't go about cleaning or cooking."

Harry smiled and looked to Niffle. "You have two house-elves which are bonded to the dower house by your birth family. That is fortunate for you, as no other elves in Britain are willing to work for you, given the way you and your family treated Dobby and your other elves!"

"Narcissa, all the evidence shows that you were totally controlled by your husband and his Master, both in your management of your own house and your finances. You have been deemed to be no threat to myself of the wizarding world, as you were a victim of the Dark Lord's plans, although not nearly as much a victim as many. Therefore, as Head of the Black and Malfoy families, I decree that you move to your dower house, which will be reconnected to the floo system for your convenience, and that you will be left alone to live your life as you choose."

Narcissa looked at Harry in anger. "You hate me so much that you will do this to me?"

Smiling sadly, Harry shook his head. "As in many other things, you misunderstand. I do not hate you. Hate is not the opposite of love, as both require that the person be emotionally tied to the other. The true opposite is complete indifference. I don't hate you. As Head of the families, I am responsible to a degree for those of the families. But beyond that, I just don't care !"